Guide

How do I document a smart home installation from the distribution board to the dossier? A KNX apartment as a worked example

Distribution board with modules and terminals, channel plan for the board door, terminal plan, functions by room, bus lines with bus budget and a dossier as draft or final – for KNX, Niko Home Control, Loxone, Shelly, Sonoff or vendor-neutral planning. Shown on a fictitious Brussels KNX apartment, with all limits.

Published on 4 November 2026 16 min

AuthorStephan Behm

PlanElec plans and documents smart home installations for integrators and electricians from one project: the distribution board with modules, rails, terminals and wiring, the channel plan for the board door as PDF or CSV, the terminal plan, the functions by room, bus lines with a bus budget and the smart home dossier as draft or final. This works for every supported automation system: KNX, Niko Home Control, Loxone, Shelly, Sonoff or vendor-neutral planning. In the team you comment directly on a module, hand out tasks and have documents approved. This article walks through a fictitious Brussels apartment with seven rooms, planned with KNX, with real images from PlanElec. For KNX there is an add-on at the end: proposed addresses and a group address file for ETS.

Distribution board with KNX modules on the DIN rail, green bus cables and red and black bus terminals.

As of 4 November 2026. The step-by-step guide is in the help centre: Plan and document a smart home installation: step by step with KNX. How the documents come together as a dossier is described in Plan KNX: push buttons, channels and quantities.

What does PlanElec document for a smart home installation?

PlanElec covers the planning and documentation that the distribution board, installation work, handover and inspection need. Programming the devices stays in the manufacturer's software.

Document or planning step	What PlanElec does	For whom
Distribution board	Modules on rails, terminal blocks, wiring, bus terminals; ABB i-bus types and vendor-neutral modules	Electrician, panel building
Channel plan	Every channel with load, room, protective device, terminal and control point; A4 landscape as PDF or CSV	Board door, commissioning
Terminal plan	Strips, terminals, targets and bridges per distribution board	Installation, service
Functions by room	Which button operates which light or shutter	Client, integrator
Bus lines and bus budget	Bus devices, power supply, bus current per module, estimates marked	Planning, commissioning
Topology and quantities	Logical lines of the project, quantities without prices	Quote, ordering
Smart home dossier	All documents behind one cover page, draft with watermark or final	Handover, archive
Collaboration	Comments on the object, tasks, approvals of archived documents	Team, site management
KNX only: addresses	Proposed physical and group addresses, files in ETS format	System integrator

Automation system	Central unit and connection	Lines and limits in the profile	Channel, terminal and function plan, dossier	Addresses and ETS files
KNX	Bus power supply, TP and RF	Lines with 64 devices and bus-current budget	yes	yes
Niko Home Control II	Connected Controller, rail bus	up to 12 modules per rail, up to 20 rails	yes	no
Loxone	Miniserver, Tree, Air, direct I/O	2 Tree branches, 50 devices per branch, 24 V budget	yes	no
Shelly Pro / Plus	no central unit, LAN or Wi-Fi	no bus line; load limits per channel	yes	no
Sonoff	no central unit, Wi-Fi or RF	no bus line; load limits per channel	yes	no
Generic / configurable	free	free	yes	no

The system profile decides which modules, control points and line types are offered; unknown manufacturer values remain open data.

What does the example apartment look like?

The apartment is fictitious: 11 × 9.5 m, one floor, seven rooms around a hall. Every room has a push button at the door, each of the seven windows an electric shutter. The hall and the bathroom also get a motion detector. The living room and the bedroom have dimmable lighting. The planning uses KNX.

Room	Lights	Shutters	Control point	Detector
Living room	Ceiling light (dimmable), pendant (dimmable)	2	Quadruple push button	–
Bedroom	Ceiling light (dimmable)	1	Double push button	–
Hall	Ceiling light	–	Push button	yes
Kitchen	Ceiling light, LED strip worktop	1	Double push button	–
Bathroom	Ceiling light, mirror light	1	Double push button	yes
Toilet	Ceiling light	1	Push button	–
Kids room	Ceiling light	1	Double push button	–

The 230 V side is already in place: three circuits for lighting and shutters behind a 300 mA RCD, the bathroom behind a 30 mA RCD.

Floor plan of the fictitious apartment with living room, bedroom, hall, kitchen, bathroom, toilet and kids room, lights in every room and shutters at all windows, still without push buttons. — Starting point: lights and shutters are in place, push buttons and detectors are still missing.

White architectural model of an apartment with green bus lines running from the distribution board to push buttons, shutters and motion detectors.

How do I choose the automation system?

In the Smart home mode, the Channels panel opens. At the top is the Automation systems bar with KNX, Niko Home Control II, Loxone, Shelly Pro / Plus, Sonoff and Generic / configurable. One click activates the profile; a project can carry several systems. In the example apartment we choose KNX.

Channels panel before activation: Automation systems bar with KNX and other profiles, below it the note that no system has been chosen yet. — Before activation the panel only offers the system choice.

Next, the Domotica planning steps appear: System, Modules, Loads, Lines, Export. Each step shows its status and takes you with one click to the next open point.

Five planning steps with System active and Modules, Loads, Lines and Export open, below them the Place module form. — KNX is active; the other four steps are still open.

How do I document the distribution board with modules, rails and terminals?

For 10 lights, 3 of them dimmable, and 7 shutters, five modules on two DIN rails are enough. We deliberately mix ABB i-bus types with vendor-neutral templates.

Rail	Module	Manufacturer	Channels	used
KNX 1	SV/S 30.640.5.1 power supply	ABB	–	–
KNX 1	IPS/S 3.1.1 IP interface	ABB	–	–
KNX 1	SA/S 12.16.2.2 switch actuator	ABB	12	7
KNX 2	Shutter actuator 8×	vendor-neutral	8	7
KNX 2	Dimming actuator 4×	vendor-neutral	4	3

Below the planning steps you open Place module, choose module and rail and click Place. PlanElec puts the module in the first free slot, creates its channels and assigns it to the default line. The list groups the templates by family.

Open module list with power supplies, including the vendor-neutral KNX power supply and ABB SV/S 30.640.5.1 and 30.320.2.1, followed by line couplers and IP interfaces. — Vendor-neutral templates and ABB types in one list, grouped by family.

Place module form after placing the ABB SA/S 12.16.2.2, with the confirmation that the module was placed and its channels created. — One click: module in the board, twelve channels in the table.

Right after placing, the switch actuator appears with its twelve channels in the channel table, still without loads.

Channel table with the ABB SA/S 12.16.2.2 group and twelve empty switching channels CH1 to CH12. — Twelve switching channels, ready to be assigned.

In the distribution board editor the modules sit on their rails, together with the main switch, RCDs and circuit breakers. That is also where you maintain terminal blocks and wiring. PlanElec shows the ABB types in the manufacturer's style, with a red and black bus terminal.

Cabinet editor with the apartment board: supply row, bathroom 30 mA row and two KNX rails with five modules, the module palette on the left. — The whole board: 230 V protection at the top, KNX on rails of its own.

Close-up of the KNX rails: ABB SV/S, IPS/S and SA/S on KNX 1, shutter and dimming actuator on KNX 2, the ABB types with red and black bus terminals. — Close-up of the KNX rails with the ABB types and the vendor-neutral actuators.

ABB i-bus or vendor-neutral?

Both work in the same project. PlanElec lists 15 ABB i-bus modules with order numbers: SA/S switch actuators, JRA/S blind actuators, UD/S dimming actuators, BE/S binary inputs, the VAA/S valve drive actuator, SV/S power supplies, the LK/S line coupler, the IPS/S IP interface and the IPR/S IP router. In the catalogue you filter the KNX group by manufacturer. For the other systems, vendor-neutral templates are available.

Route	Advantage	What to watch
ABB i-bus type	Order number, bus current from manufacturer data, shown in the device's style	Check the datasheet before ordering
Vendor-neutral	Free for any brand, quick for early planning	Enter channel rating and bus current yourself

ABB is a trademark of the ABB Group. PlanElec is not an ABB partner and uses no ABB or KNX logos.

How do I connect push buttons and motion detectors to the channels?

You place push buttons and detectors on the floor plan from the Control points & sensors catalogue: a push button, double push button or quadruple push button by the door, the motion detector on the ceiling. Bus control points join the line of their system without a further step.

Floor plan with push buttons next to all seven doors, motion detectors in the hall and bathroom, lights and shutters in every room. — Seven push buttons, two motion detectors, seven shutters, ten lights.

In the channel matrix you connect every channel to its load and its control point: + in the Loads column, + in the Control points column. Suggest by room proposes a distribution by room and channel type; existing assignments are kept.

Suggest by room dialog explaining that unassigned floor plan loads are grouped by room and channel type onto free channels. — The room proposal distributes free loads; you then review it channel by channel.

What does the channel plan for the board door show?

Every channel sits on one row with channel type, load, room, control points, terminal, protective device and Line / PA; the line appears in its colour, for example “KNX 1.1”. Room and protective device come from the project; you do not enter them twice. CH1 "Ceiling light hall" has two control points: the push button and the motion detector. Exactly these rows become the channel plan that you stick on the board door as A4 landscape or edit further as CSV.

Wide channel table: SA/S channels CH1 to CH7 with lights, room, push buttons, motion detectors in the hall and bathroom, circuit breaker and line KNX 1.1, CH8 to CH12 as spares, below the dimming actuator with the note that the channel rated current is unknown. — Assigned channels with a check mark, spares without load; the dimming actuator lacks its channel rated current.

On the right of each row is the channel's finding. For the vendor-neutral dimming actuator PlanElec reports "The channel rated current is unknown": the template does not know the rating of the actual device. Other findings are loads assigned twice, loads without a protective device, an unsuitable channel type and overload.

Finding	Meaning	What you do
Channel rating unknown	The channel has no rated current from template or input	Enter the value from the datasheet
Load unknown	The light has no power rating	Add the power at the device
Duplicate load	One load hangs on two channels	Remove one assignment
Protective device missing	The supply path of the load has no circuit breaker	Check the circuit in the diagram
Overload	Sum of loads above the channel rating	Spread the loads or choose another channel

In the narrow dock next to the floor plan the table stays readable: control points move below the loads, and the line sits at the module.

Channel table in the narrow dock: switch actuator with line KNX 1.1, per channel the kind, the load and below it the control points push button and motion detector. — The same table in the dock next to the floor plan.

Is one bus line enough for the apartment?

Yes, with plenty of headroom. In the Lines view all bus devices sit on line 1.1 in area 1. The power supply module is the ABB SV/S 30.640.5.1, the supply capacity 640 mA.

Figure	Value in the example apartment	Limit
Bus devices	13	64 per line
Bus current	132 mA, of which 11 devices with an estimate	640 mA
Line coupler	none needed	from the second line

Lines view with line KNX 1.1, power supply module ABB SV/S 30.640.5.1, 640 mA, budget 132 mA with 11 estimated devices, 13 devices against a limit of 64; each device with a drag handle, checkbox, bus current and line selection. — Bus budget of line 1.1: known and estimated values shown separately.

You move devices between lines by dragging, several at once via the checkboxes; without a mouse via Move to. Add area 2 opens another area. Unlocked physical addresses follow the line. Each line has its own colour and carries its address as its name, for example “KNX 1.1”.

Bus current you do not enter is set to typical values and marked "estimated". For the ABB types the values come from manufacturer data, for the vendor-neutral templates and the control points they are estimates. Before commissioning you compare them with the datasheets. The topology shows the line as a logical picture; you draw the bus cable on the floor plan with Route bus.

Logical topology of line 1.1 with power supply, IP interface, actuators and control points. — Logical topology, not a measured cable route.

Green KNX bus cable with the sheath stripped, red and black cores in red and black bus terminals, white and yellow cores left free.

How do I set functions and scenes per room?

In the Functions view, Add scene creates a scene with target values. For "Away", all lights go off and all seven shutters go to 100 %. Central: all off and Central: close blinds create the two usual central functions in one click. The functions appear in the functions by room.

Scene editor Away with the switching and dimming channels set to off and all shutters to 100 percent. — Scene “Away” with a target value per channel.

Functions and scenes view with the buttons Add scene, Central: all off and Central: close blinds, and the scene Away with 17 participants. — 17 participants in the scene “Away”.

Which documents are produced for installation, handover and inspection?

In Export mode, section Domotica, you choose distribution board, sort order, version and status. Every document has a preview and PDF, the channel and terminal plans also CSV, the topology SVG. Download Domotica dossier bundles everything behind one cover page. Draft carries a watermark and works with open data too; Final requires export readiness, and the interface names the open points.

Domotica section of the export with board, sorting, version and status, and the cards channel plan, terminal plan, functions by room, topology, quantities and conformity report. — Domotica documents from the same project.

For whom	Document
Inspection	Single-line diagram with bus power supply, actuators and push buttons; situation plan
Electrician on site	Channel plan as board-door sheet, terminal plan, quantities
System integrator	Channel plan as CSV, functions by room, topology
Client	Functions by room, smart home dossier

What of this belongs on the single-line diagram and the situation plan under the Belgian AREI/RGIE (the national electrical installation regulations) is explained in Home automation and KNX in the electrical installation.

How do I coordinate the project in the team?

Comments are attached directly to the object. In the distribution board you select the switch actuator and write a comment in Module properties, for example: Please take the bus current of the motion detectors from the datasheet.

Cabinet with the ABB SA/S 12.16.2.2 selected and an open comment about the bus current of the motion detectors in Module properties. — Comment on the module, visible to everyone in the project.

In the Notes & tasks panel you hand out tasks, for example to the electrician on site. Approvals of archived documents run through the same area.

Notes and tasks panel with the task Print the channel plan and fix it to the board door. — Task for the installation: channel plan on the board door.

What does KNX add: addresses and files for ETS?

For KNX, PlanElec also proposes addresses. In the Addresses view you choose the Group address scheme and click Propose addresses. In the example apartment one step creates 13 physical addresses and 61 group addresses.

Physical addresses of line KNX 1.1: power supply without address, IP interface 1.1.1, switch actuator 1.1.2, shutter actuator 1.1.3, dimming actuator 1.1.4, then push buttons and motion detectors with their room from 1.1.5. — First the modules in cabinet order, then the control points by room.

Device	Physical address
ABB SV/S 30.640.5.1	none (power supply)
ABB IPS/S 3.1.1	1.1.1
ABB SA/S 12.16.2.2	1.1.2
Shutter actuator 8×	1.1.3
Dimming actuator 4×	1.1.4
Push buttons and motion detectors	from 1.1.5, by room

Group addresses have three levels. In the default scheme Trade / floor / object the main group is the trade, the middle group the floor and the sub group the running object; Floor / trade / object is the alternative.

Main group	Trade	Example in the apartment	DPT
1	Lighting	1/1/1 Hall ceiling light switching, 1/1/2 status	1.001
2	Dimming	Living room ceiling light: switching, dimming, value	1.001, 3.007, 5.001
3	Blinds	Kitchen shutter: up/down, stop, position	1.008, 1.007, 5.001
5	Inputs	Motion detectors hall and bathroom: switching, brightness	1.001, 9.004
6	Scenes	Scene "Away"	17.001
7	Central	"All off", "Close blinds"	1.001, 1.008

Group addresses of main group 1 Lighting, middle group 1/1 Apartment: one row per light with switching and status side by side, datapoint type 1.001 with its name, below the push button and detector reference. — One row per channel: switching and status side by side, below the push buttons and detectors that use them.

A push button gets no group address of its own; every key refers to the group address of its channel. The motion detector has its own switching object and a brightness object. Spare channels stay without a group address. Each row shows a channel with the name of its load; further objects appear as “+3 objects”. Clicking an address opens the input field; changed and locked addresses are kept by every further proposal, and the lock appears on locked addresses and on hover.

For this, Export has the ETS preparation box. It does not depend on the dossier approval.

ETS preparation box with Group addresses CSV (ETS), Group addresses XML (ETS) and Physical address list CSV. — Three files for ETS; PlanElec does not create the project file.

File	Content
Group addresses CSV (ETS)	Three-level format "3/1", main, middle and sub group, DPT as `DPST-x-y`
Group addresses XML (ETS)	Group addresses in the XML schema `http://knx.org/xml/ga-export/01`
Physical address list CSV	Line, address, device, kind, room as a working list

In the description of every group address PlanElec writes which keys, detectors and scene members use it. Devices, parameters and links are created in ETS. The files follow the ETS format; we have not tested an import against a particular ETS version and do not promise one.

Where are the limits?

PlanElec	Manufacturer software, installation or inspection
Planning and documentation of board, channels, terminals, lines	Programming the devices, parameters, logic
Channel, terminal and function plans, topology, dossier	Wiring on site, single-conductor wiring plan
Bus budget with entered and estimated values	Measurement, bus diagnostics, commissioning
Logical lines and bus cable on the floor plan	Surveyed cable routes, insulation testing
KNX only: address proposal and files in ETS format	ETS project file (.knxproj), links to communication objects
Planning findings and the project's AREI self-check	Acceptance by the approved inspection body

Frequently asked questions

Does this work without KNX?

Yes. Distribution board, channel plan, terminal plan, functions by room, dossier and collaboration apply equally to Niko Home Control II, Loxone, Shelly, Sonoff and vendor-neutral planning; lines and their limits follow the respective profile. Only the addresses and the files for ETS are KNX-specific.